Student showed up at ex’s door with a knife

A STUDENT who threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend’s new partner told police he would “go down for his murder”.

Christopher Phillips, 20, could not cope with the break-up of his first long-term relationship and when the woman started seeing his best friend sent a string of chilling text messages before turning up at their home armed with a knife.

Hours before being arrested on the doorstep of the house in Leyland on June 29, Phillips texted the woman, saying: “He’d better keep away from me or I’ll break his legs and cut his throat with the knife he stabbed in my back.

“I’ll gladly get sent down for his murder. Just bear that in mind.”

After a string of threatening and abusive messages, the couple heard a loud banging on the front door.

They did not open it and called the police who arrived to find Phillips had turned the knife on himself and was bleeding from his arms.

When asked if he had meant the comments about going to prison for his murder, Phillips said: “Yes.”

Phillips, of New Lane, Penwortham, has been ordered to spend six months in a young offenders’ institute for making threats to kill.

Harry Pepper, prosecuting, told the court Phillips had broken up with the girl ten months previously but became increasingly upset when she started a relationship with his friend.

Judge Gibson accepted Phillips was receiving treatment for mental health problems but told him: “These things happen in relationships. The pain can be terrible but you can’t control what other people do by threats or violence.”